레위기 26:8의 주석

ורדפו מכם [AND FIVE] OF YOU SHALL PURSUE [A HUNDRED] — five of the weakest among you — and not alone of the most robust among you (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 4).

AND YOUR ENEMIES SHALL FALL BEFORE YOU BY THE SWORD. He assured them at first that they would chase their enemies and that they would fall by their sword,²⁵See Verse 7. and then He stated again by way of repetition [in the verse before us], and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword, in order to give them fortitude of heart and strength so that five [of them would not be afraid] to pursue a hundred. He [furthermore promised that He] would put faintness into the heart of their enemies, so that a hundred would [in fact] flee before five, and would all fall by the sword of the five, for it would be possible that they [a hundred people] would flee because of the sword and because of their fear, but that they would not be able to kill them by the sword because of their few numbers [therefore He mentioned specifically that they would be able to put them to the sword too]. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra has said that this repetition [in our verse] means that they [the enemies] will fall continually, time after time, without regaining [their strength].

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה, "And five of you will put one hundred of them to flight, etc." The obvious difficulty in our verse is that the enemies will fall before the pursuing Jewish army. This promise included such assurances as that even ten thousand enemy soldiers would fall before as few as two Jewish soldiers. Why did the Torah now limit the blessing contained in the previous verse?

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה, “and five of you will pursue a hundred.” When one is able to pursue 20, one would assume that 100 would be able to pursue two thousand, not ten thousand as described here. Some commentators explain the word מאה in our verse as meaning one hundred times five, i.e. 500 of you would pursue 10000 of the enemy. In this way the Torah’s original ratio would be maintained, but why would the Torah have to tell us something like this, something every youngster can figure out for himself? Ibn Ezra writes (referring the reader to his treatise on Hebrew grammar entitled sefer moznayim,) that it is customary for people describing unusual ratios, abnormal quantities, to use the ratios ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, as basics when discussing multiples. He sees the numbers 1-10 as a unit, followed by the numbers10-100, followed by the number 100-1000, and 1000-10000. He quotes Samuel II 18,3 כי עתה כמוני עשרת אלפים, “even if there were ten thousand such as we, etc.”, as an example for such figures of speech. [He means that the people saying this to their King, David, did not expect David to take their meaning literally. Ed.] The Torah here added an example of a multiple of 20 when describing the miraculous feats that would be performed by the Israelites when assured of G’d’s support. Some commentators reflecting on the Torah’s using the term רדף, and נוס as expressions for flight, explain that pursuit, רדיפה of people already running away requires relatively more people, than merely causing them to flee, i.e. נוס , or להניס. Whereas a ratio of 2 to 10000 may suffice for causing the enemy to flee, 1 to 1000 may be needed to ensure effective pursuit of those already in flight. Pursuit is ineffective unless it results in the fleeing warriors being killed. To do this a relatively greater number is required than to merely frighten them into fleeing.

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה, “and five of you will take up the pursuit of one hundred (of the enemy).” The verse goes on: “and one hundred of you (in units of five) will pursue ten thousand of the enemy.” When you understand the verse in this manner you will have no difficulty with the apparently inflated ratio of Israelites pursuing the enemy. The ratio of one Israelite to 20 of the enemy is the same in both parts of the verse.
The sages (Sifra Bechukotai 2,4) were not fazed by the apparently lopsided ratio and explained that the power of a few people keeping the Torah is increased out of all proportion when the groups of Torah-observant people increase in number. This is why when there are large numbers of observant Jews they may even put one hundred times their number to flight.

Of the weak. Since it is not written ורדפו חמשה מכם [placing מכם after the number] as it says afterwards, ומאה מכם רבבה, this alteration perforce indicates that מכם here does not have its plain meaning [of “from you”]. Rather, מכם means מך (weak), as in the verse (earlier 25:47), “while your brother becomes impoverished (ומך) by him,” which means poor. And a poor person is generally weak.

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה, ומאה מכם רבבה ירדופו “five of you will put one hundred 100 to flight, and one hundred of you will pursue ten thousand.”

‎חמישה מאה ומאה מכם רבבה FIVE [OF YOU SHALL PURSUE] A HUNDRED AND A HUNDRED… TEN THOUSAND — But is this the right proportion? Surely it should have stated only “and a hundred of you shall pursue two thousand (and not ten thousand)!? But the explanation is: a few who fulfill the commandments of the Torah cannot compare with the many who fulfill the commandments of the Torah (i. e. the greater the group of those loyal to the Torah, the greater is the morale and, under God’s blessing, the physical strength of each individual belonging to the group) (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 4).

Is this thus the proportion? Would one not need five hundred men for a hundred thousand according to the calculation of five men for a hundred? I found in the name of Rav Yaakov of Orleans that he explains the verse as follows: Five of you will pursue one hundred, and a hundred times five men will pursue ten thousand. So I found.

I believe the verses have to be explained in accordance with what we learned in Sotah 11 that G'd always quantifies a blessing more generously than He quantifies a curse. [We have examples in Deut. 5,9-10 where G'd promises to remember sins for up to 4 generations whereas He will remember good deeds for up to two thousand generations. Ed.] Tossaphot query the fact that the Talmud phrases the principle as one that applies invariably, i.e. לעולם. They refer to Deut. 32,30 where the Torah asks rhetorically: "How was it that one (enemy soldier) could pursue a thousand Israelites and two could put ten thousand to flight?" Surely this is an example of the curse having been quantified as proportionately far more powerful than the blessing in our portion when you compare the numbers in both instances? They answer that in Deuteronomy 32 the Torah speaks only of pursuit and not killing and that this is is hardly a curse. In our portion the pursuit is described as resulting in our enemies dying. I find this an inadequate response to the question. There is a discussion in Moed Katan 16 about the exploits of David's heroes one of whom is described as having killed 800 of the enemy with a single arrow. David complained that the assurance that he could kill a thousand of the enemy with one stroke had not been fulfilled. A heavenly voice told him that the reason that G'd's promise had not been fulfilled fully was due to his own involvement with Uriah. It is clear from the Talmud in Moed Katan that David understood the promise in our verse to refer not merely to putting the enemy to flight but to killing him. If not, why did he complain about something G'd had never promised?

רבבה, “ten thousand;”

'ונפלו איביכם וגו AND YOUR ENEMIES SHALL FALL etc . — The repetition of this promise already expressed in v. 7 suggests that they will fall before you in a supernatural way (lit., not in the way of the world) (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 4).

There is no comparison. Re’m writes, You might ask: If so, regarding [non-Jewish] idolaters [pursuing Jews who sin], of whom it is written (Devarim 32:30), “How can one pursue a thousand, and two make ten thousand flee,” it should have said, “and two make two thousand flee”? The work book Imrei Noam asks this question and answers in the name of Rabbeinu Tam, that here it is talking of pursuing and killing as it is written, “Your enemies will fall before you by the sword.” Therefore five can only pursue and kill a hundred. There, however, there is no killing but only pursuing. It seems to me that although pursuit includes killing, this is not the case with fleeing. Therefore, regarding non-Jews, if one of them pursues and kills a thousand, two will kill two thousand and no more, and three will kill three thousand, and so on ad infinitum. But the Israelites are different as Rashi explains when he asks, “Is this thus the proportion, etc.” Regarding fleeing however, two men can make ten thousand flee, and two Jews can perhaps make double that number flee, as with Yonasan and his arms bearer. Perhaps my words include what the Imrei Noam says. See Tosfos Sotah 11a. (Divrei Dovid) It is fitting to give some sort of rationale for the ratio of a hundred to ten thousand. It seems as follows: Since five people kill a hundred, when they are many, each one of the hundred [Jews] is like five and can kill a hundred. Thus, that hundred is capable of killing a hundred times hundred, namely ten-thousand.

We must assume therefore that both verse 7 and verse 8 speak of enemies dying. The way to answer the query of Tossaphot is best answered by reference to Torat Kohanim who understand the word מכם in verse 8 as a reference to the physically weakest of the Israelites. The wording in Torat Kohanim is: "from the weakest amongst you and not from the strongest amongst you." Why did Torat Kohanim add the words "and not from the strongest amongst you?" The obvious intention of Torat Kohanim was to emphasise that the words "from the weakest" should not be interpreted as "even from amongst the weakest amongst you, but should be understood as "the weakest amongst you excluding the strongest." In light of this it is not surprising that in this verse the Torah only speaks of a blessing extended to the physically weak members of the Israelites who are able to mount a pursuit in a ratio of five against a hundred. Amongst the Gentile nations the physically weak specimen do not take part in warfare at all. When the Torah asked rhetorically in Deuteronomy how it is that suddenly one Gentile is able to pursue 1000 Israelites the reference is to the physically strongest Gentiles amongst them. The Torah did not have to make these distinctions amongst the Israelites as we know that the curse is always quantified as proportionately weaker than the corresponding blessing.

Not in a natural way. Rashi is answering the question: Why does the Torah write about enemies falling twice, since before in v. 7 it [already] wrote, “They will fall before you ... ” Therefore, etc.

From all the above it emerges that G'd actually ordered two separate blessings to be effective instead of limiting the blessing of verse 7 in verse 8. First of all the Torah describes the valour of the individual Israelites during generations when the people observe G'd's statutes. Concerning these men of heroic proportions the Torah says that they will pursue their enemies and the enemies will fall before them. In the event you are interested how many enemies a single Israelite can pursue, you only have to refer to the verse in Deuteronomy which describes the exploits of your enemies. Since you are aware that G'd quantifies a blessing more generously than a curse you can draw your own conclusions. The Talmud in Sotah 11 only illustrated how David interpreted the blessing. He based himself on the statement that anyone who studied Torah for a single day is considered as if he had done so for a whole year. This statement is proven from the punishment G'd meted out to the people of Israel who had accepted the majority report of the spies. In Numbers 14,34 the Torah condemns the Israelites to wandering in the desert for one year in exchange for every day the spies had toured the land of Canaan and had returned with a devastating conclusion. If G'd's quantification of the curse was 365 to one, then His quantification of a blessing could not possibly be of a lesser ratio. It is not surprising therefore to hear David complain that even the greatest of his warriors had not been able to destroy 1000 of the enemy with a single blow.

You will find an interesting remark in Chronicles I 12,15. "These are the leaders (in exploits) of the army of the tribe of Gad (in the time of David) the weakest disposed of 100 of the enemy, the strongest disposed of 1.000. This is sort of proof of what the Torah said here that the weak pursue and kill in a ratio of 5 to 100, and 100 pursue 10.000 must refer to the weaker specimen amongst the Israelites. When the Book of Chronicles speaks of "one to a hundred and one to a thousand respectively, the reason the comparison made by the author of the Book of Chronicles is with "one" i.e. a single warrior, is because these are examples of particularly powerful individuals, not the run of the mill. All of this leads us to the conclusion that verse 7 which does not impose a limit on how many warriors will pursue how many enemies speaks of the Israelites whose physique is of heroic dimensions. The Torah deliberately does not describe their feats in terms of numbers as their prowess is unlimited in principle. For all we know one such Israelite could pursue a half million of the enemy; under no circumstances would he pursue fewer than a thousand as in the reverse situation in the Book of Deuteronomy. Inasmuch as different periods in history produced Israelites of different calibre the Torah did not go into specifics.

ונפלו אויביכם לחרב. "and your enemies will fall by the sword." Why did the Torah repeat this promise both in verse 7 and in verse 8? Torat Kohanim explain that the meaning is that the enemies will fall by each other's sword. We may add that the Torah wanted to distinguish between a pursuit by five men of a hundred men of the enemy respectively, and the pursuit by a hundred men of ten thousand. If Israel can dispose of one thousand pursuers, the defeat of the enemies will assume proportions that are greater than a mere arithmetical progression. The word לחרב refers to the effectiveness of the avenging sword.